


To Boldly Sail North

by JayBarou



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, M/M, Merloki, Selkies, So AU it is only losely based on marvel, green terorism, modern Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-03-20 00:14:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: Tony Carbonell should have inherited his mother's ship, along with a big heap of secrets, but he didn't.Loki should have minded his own business underwater instead of approaching the ship.





	1. Ahoy

**Author's Note:**

> I hope not to jinx it, but this should be only a few chapters long.  
> This one is very far removed from canon. From setting to backstory, I left nothing untouched.

Antonio Carbonell, Tony, was the adoptive son of a famous Italian modern pirate. She used to be married to some Stark guy but she was tired of that life and became a crusader of the international waters just after WWII. Her name was María Carbonell. She never made it to the history books, never shaped the world in grandiose ways, but Tony admired the stories she told him when he was a little boy.

***

“Tony?”

“Yes, mum?”

“Did I ever tell you about __la grande fuga,__ cucciolo _ _?”__

“Y... No. Tell me again.”

“I’ll take command, Captain, you take the cuchiolo.”

“No! We can stay on the bridge, right, mum?”

“Ask them yourself. They are working, we don’t interrupt people who don’t want to be interrupted.”

“And... What if they know stories too?”

“Oh, boy, do I have stories. I know every tale of the north coast. From the Finnish tales to the stories of bruxas.”

“Mum! They know stories!”

***

Stories of land, south, and sun, about the wars... Stories about engines that exploded and were repaired with gum and braided hair... María always told the best stories, and he liked very much the ones about and her very good friend Peggy Carter, who seemed to be just as sunny as the lands in the south, and as ruthless as the pirates in the north. Something he had the pleasure of confirming when she joined them for a few years while she was hiding from something that happened. Sometimes she and María even told him stories of the Themyscira island, and Tony never knew how much to believe their words. Tony missed María and her stories very much.

She was still alive, she just had retired; her bones tired of the salt of the sea, but she faked her death so any criminal charges would die with it. Tony missed her all the same at the ship, no matter how many times he visited her and Peggy. But they seemed so happy when he did, that he felt selfish for wishing to have her, or them, back on board.

***

“Tony, my boy, how was the ship?”

“Full of insubordinates, as always, and no news regarding the inheritance. How have you been?”

“You are young, my boy, have patience with them. And us? We went to Firenze. You know? We didn’t meet before by a matter of weeks! I left Italy around the time she came for some mission. Same city!”

“I’m glad you didn’t meet sooner, mom.”

“Me too, my boy."

"I wouldn’t have met you otherwise.”

“Sciocco.”

“Hey, I’ve been told I’m charming.”

“By whom? Mermaids? Sailors? I thought I taught you better than that. Come, leave the bags by the door the table is set.”

“I cross the seven seas and this is how you greet me? Mom, your land food tastes like ship food, maybe even plane food.”

“It’s pizza.”

“Oh, that changes things. The one meal you mastered.”

“Yeah, changed indeed, I changed my mind. Peggy! See if we have any raw fish left and prepare to eat for two!”

“Mom!”

***

 The downside of their happiness was that all her legacy, her ship, and her goods, passed to Howard Stark thanks to the backward laws at the time. Tony had used the ship all the same, quite illegally, but worrying about the day Stark would take “The Carbonell” from him. The guy had been mixed up in some shady business and he was killed before Tony had to worry about him. The official story was a car accident, but Tony had inherited María’s contacts in the black market. And the shadows' whispers were about drugs for the military and the Winter Soldier. Tony was glad of never having met the guy.

The problem still stood. Stark’s money and resources would have gone to the many bastards that man surely had, if not for a loophole. Howard Stark, the madman, had named Captain America his only heir. That had given Tony time to grow into María’s boots, find the respect of a crew who still remembered him as a toddler shouting all over the ship and demanding to be taught the workings of the metal whale. Not an easy feat.

***

“Nino, is the ship yours already?”

“Not quite, not quite.”

“Tony, boy, should I bother with the taxes? I mean, we are illegal, but our front is...”

“Partly an NGO, those won’t do you any good, come.”

“Carbonelletto, I have news about our floating home: someone by the name of Stane is doing something to get the papers in order.”

“Aha, someone is doing something to get the papers. Give me that, Mr. Lightbulb.”

***

The young Carbonell had kept track of the Stark fortune in every port. Stane had been too worried about the assets and actives to notice one solitary ship, but he kept track all the same. The guy had opened a line of investigation, seeking the trace of Captain America where Howard had left it, and that effort had frozen the fortune in his hands at the price of an annual trip to the Arctic.

***

“You are lucky, skip, the expeditions he is making will hide us in their books.”

“Hush.”

“Hush?”

“I’m calling people to learn what kind of trail they are leaving so we can mimic them.”

“But... we will do our thing, right?”

“Of course, research at the prow and at the aft... Yes? Oh, Hi, yes, I was calling... Yes, a secure line...”

“Skip...”

“Wait a second... Don’t worry, McCarron, I’ve got this. I’ve got all of us. Yes, I’m back, I was getting paper.”

***

Thanks to the international status of the problem, the situation could have stayed that way for up to 20 years, cheating the illegitimate children of Stark out of their heirloom. And that gave Tony as much grief as peace. Unexpectedly, Captain America was found and unfrozen. Nobody was more surprised than Stane, except maybe the unfrozen bloke, who was then declared heir.

***

“Mum, I couldn’t call last week, there were... you know.”

“I know, my boy.”

“And...How is Peggy?”

“She’s... She’s not having a good day today. Tony... I’m scared, Tony.”

“I know, mom, we all are. I’m trying to find a way of going there as soon as...”

“Wait, my boy. I have news. I don’t know if Stark Industries will make it public soon or not, but...”

“I’ll hack them if you don’t tell me.”

“I know you will, honestly, I don’t know how you managed to learn so much when I couldn’t offer you so little...”

“Mom, you gave me everything I needed and then everything I wanted, I’m __spoiled.__ And you are stalling _ _.”__

 _ _“__ One of the expeditions found Captain America in the ice, they are trying to thaw him.”

“Oh, damn, we must be careful. There will be lawyers and accountants everywhere.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t rush to our side.”

“How... How did she take it?”

“That might be the reason why she’s having a bad day. She didn’t remember Captain America, but she remembered Steve Rogers as if it was happening in front of her eyes.”

“I don’t know what to say, Mom, I wish I could be there.”

“I’ll keep an eye on the things on land, go out and do our thing. I’m so proud of you.”

***

Captain America and his golden heart had given part of the fortune to the bastards, then part to veterans, then part to orphan houses and then some secretary named Virginia Potts had had to step in before he sold all the assets and industries to the competition, and left millions of Stark employees homeless.

Tony laughed for a whole week when María called to the phone in the ship to tell him. And they needed as many laughs as they could with Peggy’s condition, she had been lucid to laugh with them and Tony had almost cried because she remembered him that day. Their calls had become so bitter-sweet that nobody dared to talk to him until dinner time, when his table got crowded and everyone made an effort to distract him.

Truth be told, Tony had stopped his laughter when Potts’ meddling had discovered his little technically-stolen-but-morally-totally-his ship. A few of the guys in the ship had mysteriously disappeared (rats, all of them) when news reached them that Stane, Potts, and Rogers had found them. Tony had tried to keep his crew calm. Their cover was flimsy, but pretending incompetence could go a long way. Before that, he would baffle them with his bullshit; he invited the SI people to see first hand what they did at the Arctic.

***

“Are you mad, Nino?”

“No, no, boys, relax, we can pull it off. We have been preparing this ship for the ice for so long, they can’t just re-purpose it, and our research is solid. Good work, sci-team, we’ll owe you a beer at the nearest port. I won’t lie, selling this stuff to a weapons business is going to be hard.”

“Seduce Potts. Can’t you do that, Nino?”

“One more mermaid joke and I will personally fish a big tuna to replace your legs in your sleep, you hear me, dummy?”

“What about mermen? Siren jokes? No? Caecilia?”

“Why would you even...? Forget it. It is settled. I’ll replace your legs with a golden fish.”

“All this is very well, captain, but what happens if things go to hell?”

“We’ll defend our ship and go into hiding. Stane refused to come. Potts shouldn’t be a problem, and Rogers, well, If we can’t talk him down, maybe we could put the confiscated whale-harpoons to good use. This has been home for us for decades. Nobody in this ship will end up homeless and freezing his ass off. And... well, saying it can’t jinx it, right? I was thinking if everything goes wrong I could surrender and that would give our investigations a twist and...”

“No, Carbonell. No martyrs in this ship. Agreed?”

"Agreed. In the name of all of the crew, Tony, don't do anything stupid.”

“Thank you all... Fine! Then we’ll need our best game. Have all your best IDs at hand, remember your names and your function in the ship, quiz each other if you need to; it’s exam season and we are game.”

“Tony...”

“Yes, Ms. Fri?”

“Remember to hide your pelt. These people are not family.”


	2. Even Keel

The glaciers stood proud on the horizon. The small ships in the distance sailed just as proudly, but with much less grace if Loki was to be asked. He swam closer to the big ship that was following the old way of an icebreaker. He let his fin-tail break the surface of an otherwise calm sea before he dived under.

Getting used to the sinuous movement of a fin had been a life or death challenge, so he had learnt quickly. He still knew his movements were not as fluid as they could be. Sometimes, especially when he was swimming close to the surface, he would kick forward as if he still had his legs. It was like stumbling in water. But getting used to it would be a matter of time. He also knew he didn’t use his gills as efficiently as he could, didn’t swim as fast as he could, didn’t know how much cold he could stand… But he would eventually get there.

He would have had it easier if he lived in the water constantly. But he felt like he had become enough of a hermit as it was. Burying himself in a tomb of water was out of the question. Instead, Loki frequently visited the northernmost populations of the area he was visiting that week and indulged in mischief.

Loki looked at the ship he had followed up close. There was no distinctive flag, or maybe there was, but it wasn’t visible. And Loki was no expert; he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a country flag and a hurricane-warning flag.

He could, however, see a name written in white letters “The Carbonell”. To him, it sounded ominous, like all the other ships. He went below the surface and kept close to big pieces of ice. It was the best way to avoid their radars and eco-locators. He still had his magic to make technology overlook him, but he didn’t want to use too much of it. One day humans would build something to detect magic, he was sure of it, and he wouldn’t be the one to help them, nor the first fool to be detected by it.

Loki decided to let the ship get into the frozen dessert for a few more hours. He swam easily next to the ship that broke thin ice; thin meaning two or three yards of width instead of a few miles. He checked the engines and the material looking for more clues. There were weapons, but minimal and concealed. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.

He tried to observe the crew members too, but nowadays most of the fun in ships happened inside. Loki was intrigued. He had to admit that. He had found quite a few ships in the last years. He had acted against quite a few, but he had had to choose his victims well. Too many accidents and someone would eventually go to investigate. Once he had even crossed paths with a student expedition. He was perplexed at why anyone would want to go to such inhospitable lands or send their spawn there, but in the end, he had decided to let them pass unmolested. He himself had ended up there to learn after all.

This new ship didn’t look like an expedition. It didn’t look like an oil-digging group either, nor a cargo ship. Maybe illegal hunters, but those usually looked different. Slavers? Were there slavers this far north? The ship was quite mysterious and made Loki think of the legends of all kinds of pirates: Human, both old and modern and space rogues in their unlicensed pirate ships. Now, would Loki let these pirates pass? What were they doing so far north?

He swam silently next to the ship waiting patiently to see if someone came out and gave away their purpose. He was no hero, but he wouldn’t attack if they were legal and legit and thus, going to be missed and drag attention to his corner of the world. He usually mauled ships he heard the Innuit pointed as bad ones. Also, expeditions had cameras that could identify him and illegal ships tried to hide so much that nobody would even carry a phone with a camera.

He only had to learn if this ship would be missed or not and if it had recording devices. There was a crew indeed, but they weren’t very talkative outside. All of them wore heavy coats. All but one buffoon, whose goal in life seemed to be to entertain; everyone idle was watching him.

Not that Loki could hear them all that well, he was just guessing from their body language. They didn’t look like smugglers or hunters. Loki was unsure of his next course of action. In the end, he decided to freeze their path ahead and their path behind. He didn’t know what they were up to, but he had been behaving well lately, and nobody would notice a band of rogues who were late to their destination. Besides, maybe there were slaves in that ship and Loki was doing a noble act, he __had__ to make them reveal their intentions. Maybe this time he could freeze the hull and see if it was indeed more brittle; weak enough to break with a good hit. Maybe he would try that singing thing that humans claimed that drove sailors crazy.  He hadn’t had time to have fun in a long time.

He swam about two miles back before he started to freeze the path and the surrounding area. If that ship wanted to go back, it would have to grow legs. Freezing the other half of the way would be a bit more tricky since Loki had to swim faster than the ship, which was not easy, and far ahead enough to have time to make ice thicker than what the ship could break.

The ship reached his position just in time, but they didn’t try to break it outright. A lucky outcome; Loki would have been disappointed if his fun had been cut short so soon with a simple crashing. He stayed underwater and far from the ice barrier. He had seen the weapons, Loki suspected that they would shoot at the ice and be done with it, but it didn’t happen. The ship was still where it had stopped. Loki risked his cover and swam to the surface.

“At least let us go with you, Captain. There is a pneumatic hammer in storage, give me the time to bring the generator.”

“Go do that, but I’m going to see it first hand now. Who’s coming with me?”

“I am, boss.”

“Good girl, bring the auger, we are getting an Ice core out of that thing.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Carbonell, but I see no reason to delay our trip.”

“That’s because you come here with a bunch of good intentions and no direction. That thing over there... No. I explained myself once and this is still my ship.”

“Technically...”

“Boss, the hand auger. We can go.”

Loki swam to a crack in the ice that would let him listen to the pair and hide quickly. They had taken a long tube to the ice ground thanks to a gangplank. Loki had seen one of those before, but he still wasn’t sure what it was for.

“Chill, boss, we are trying to keep them happy, remember?”

“I know, I know, Fri, but hearing him say those things... He doesn’t know us! He doesn't know the ice and he doesn't know the Arctic! What gives him the right?! And Pots? She thinks this will be their cargo ship just like that.”

“At least Rogers admitted the ship should be yours if things were fair.”

“Yeah, his word means nothing without the paperwork.”

“We’ll work something out.”

“The arrogance! ‘The sworn translation of your adoption papers is not enough to grant you ownership, Mr. Carbonell’. I am the one in this situation! Of course I know the legal details. What does she think I’ve been doing since December 1991?”

“She was trying to be helpful.”

“Condescending is what she was!”

“This is about the change of crew, isn’t it?”

“It is about the everything! Fanculo!”

“We knew it was a long shot. Their offer to take the ship and compensate the crew is generous.”

“I have meticulously hand-picked everyone in that ship. Fri, that’s the best crew there is, and I will never be comfortable ordering around some Stark crony if they even decide to keep me in this ship, and I won't be ordered by one. This is not a job, Fri, what we do is who we are. We have a reputation!”

“In the black market, we do.”

“You are forgetting the Interpol.”

"Silly me."

“Heh, I don’t know why they'd be after us; we are just little, poor investigators.”

“Little, check. Poor, as rats! Investigators? Part-time at best.”

“You don’t believe me? See what we are doing. This auger? This is science, baby!”

“Here? This is not strategic, boss, not researched, this is your whim.”

“No, no. Look. Kick this ice. See? Old ice. Kick here. You hear that? I have seen ice from every possible perspective and that’s not naturally-formed ice. Trust me. I want to know what it is. Maybe some asshole company is dropping something like nitrogen bombs to block commercial routes, and that’s right up our alley.”

“Of research.”

“The other alley, the one with the Interpol.”

Loki watched as they went to his barrier, drilled a hole the size of a spread hand and took the ice cylinder with them. Other humans were setting machines to break down his ice. He went under to consider what he had seen. This was all new, and new meant interesting, and Loki was not about to throw away something interesting just to see if there was a temperature where ships became brittle.

He swam closer to the ship, taking good care to only break the surface where he wouldn’t be easily seen. The voices had started to mix and the cacophony didn’t yield any more clues.  But he saw the busy men and women going from the ship to the ice and from the ice to the ship. Two figures just stood on top without moving, and very few people talked to them.

Loki wanted to hear again the ones who were boss and Fri, or at least someone who was not talking about work or whispering too low, or in silence out of fear. By the distrustful looks, Loki got the idea that the two standing figures were to be feared. Maybe some kind of police or people who controlled money, tax police. Something lawful, Loki was sure of that. He also knew the ship had to be something illegal, but... There was something about the crew... Also, he had been striking down lawless ships for months and he hadn’t felt any better about his fall from grace. No more worthy than the day before.

Asgard felt as far as the day he came to Midgard. He wasn’t even sure what he was trying to accomplish besides learning to exploit his true nature. Forgiveness? Redemption? Those words left a sour taste in his mouth because nobody would make an effort to be forgiven by him, to be redeemed by him. And he knew he had been wronged.

Sighs were strange underwater; a noiseless swirling of water that he could feel all the same on his skin.

He decided to swim away, get out of the water, and come back disguised as a human. Because whatever happened, would happen on the surface. The only thing happening underwater was Loki himself.

Loki was getting good at this. He went out of the water and his jotun body reacted automatically to the colder, drier surroundings by giving him back his legs. It wasn’t part of his shape-shifting powers, it felt far more physical, and the first time there had been pain everywhere. Thankfully by now the limbs involved in the change had gotten used to it, or he had gotten numb to the pain.

Loki had been thinking about the Jotun, and how they were water creatures in secret, for a long time. It made sense. Loki had been to Jotunheim many times. He had seen cities mostly populated by warriors and leaders. He had never seen a true society, and maybe that was because Jotnar lived mostly underwater. It was always warmer than the surface, and resources were probably more abundant underwater. The dry cities were probably the defense citadels.

Maybe it even explained his hair too. Jotun people didn’t have hair, he did. Loki had considered his being a runt or a halfling, but living underwater could make hair troublesome. He had taken to braiding it whenever possible because the inky black around him looked and felt interesting for the first hour, then it became awkward. Maybe baldness was a choice.

It would be a pleasure to visit Jotunheim with this new perspective, but it was out of the question for Loki. He would walk this frozen dessert for a while and then... then who knows. Maybe this was home now, maybe not. For now the vast whit up and the vast blue under were enough. That and the little entertainment provided by a random ship once in a while.

He shuddered when he donned his Asgardian guise over the blue skin and preceded to summon pelts and coats he had seen. He was observant enough to distinguish the bright coats from the handmade pelts, but he had no idea if someone would discover him because he was wearing clothes from Russian people mixed with clothes from... Alaska was it?

There were no frontiers underwater.

He walked in the direction of the ship, mentally composing his lies. It was a long walk.


	3. Meet the Crew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only have a vague sense of where I'm going with this, but I'm dragging you down with me.

They saw the stranger in the distance.

It was not as unusual as one would expect, but it was still rare enough to pique the curiosity of the entire ship. Including the two outliers. Tony was the last one to see the stranger because he was too busy fuming. He had had yet another spat with Miss Potts about the efficiency of his staff. It was Dunmore, the broad, freckled man, in charge of supplies who pulled his sleeve and pointed at the distance where everyone else was looking.

He was very noticeable. Not only because they were a splash of black in the harsh tones of white, blue and grey of the ice, but because their path was very clearly set in the direction of the ship.

Tony got a good old-fashioned spyglass and calculated the distance, speed and how long it would take to meet the stranger if he sent someone. He would have loved to go himself, but with two strangers on-board already, he didn’t like his chances.

He ended up sending one of the wonder brothers; the scariest of his crew without a shadow of a doubt, and a stark contrast to his older brother.

“Are you sure you did the right thing, sir?”

Tony just shrugged. Ultron had been in need of a second, third and fourth chance when he joined their crew, but since he had found an alternative to cynism he had also developed an uncanny skill to get things done.

“I don’t know, Vis, but we have bigger problems on-board. What do you make of them?”

“Your move to greet the stranger seems to have softened Rogers, but Potts considers it another waste of resources and an impulsive decision. She’s not likely to keep you anywhere near captaincy after this.”

“What a business-shark.” Fri interrupted them. “Show her a corner to cut and she’ll miracle scissors in the middle of the tundra.” Then she walked to the kitchens without another word.

Vis picked up on her meaning all the same. “That seems to be more the style of Stane’s business. Since Stark’s death, he has been managing a business without a meaningful R&D development. My contacts in weapons tell me his main source of income is based on the black market. The departments under Potts are under a more civil direction, but she doesn’t have enough power.”

“I thought so. So she wants to seize this as part of her share and start anew without Stane’s influence. Good for her, but she’s stepping on our toes with her high heels.”

***

“What do you think of them?”

“That man is insufferable, he’ll give us plenty of headaches if we let him keep the ship.”

“He is good to his people.”

“He has threatened to throw two of them overboard.”

“Look at their faces.”

“I know... But we’ll get a competent crew. General Koepka was interested in something exactly like this. We need to compete with Hammer with something.”

***

“Dumdum, come back on-board! I swear I’ll shove an entire igloo up y-”

The walkie-talkie went dead, to Ultron’s surprise.

“Are you allowed to do that?”

Ultron was treated to an enigmatic smile from Dum-e... Dunmore, he finally remembered. Carbonel’s nicknames were a plague. He tried to make a point of remembering everyone’s names and he had kept his own, but it was hard when they also had fake names on board.

“You came because you don’t trust me, or because you don’t trust that guy.”

Dum- Dunmore shrugged, still with his almost-constant smile stretching a wrinkled face. Ultron had no idea if his apparent age was a product of a hard life or if the man was as old as he looked. Maybe a bit of both, but his cheerful act and occasional pranks made him look even younger then Friday.

Ultron looked straight ahead. The figure could be a man or a woman, but going by the number of people who got lost in the ice because of pride, a stupid bet or something about self-worth, he was going to say it was a man. Just statistically, really.

Not that women were any better, they just chose their self-destruction in different ways. Ultron hated all of them equally, and it was a point of pride.

Dunmore waved enthusiastically at a random point and the stranger stopped before waving back uncertainly and continue his advance. Confusion was a common thing to feel when meeting Dunmore in Ultron’s experience. He just rolled over you with cheer.

Ultron put the bag with the basics more comfortably on his shoulders. Warm soup, warmers... any emergency help the stranger could need. The Earth would benefit from every human who dropped dead, but Carbonel had convinced him to curve his ideas to include the possibility of finding a different solution. Some of his most radical ideas had some merit, he would wait.

Also, Carbonel had pointed out how in the event of human extinction, the vulnerable who are hurting the Earth the least are the first to go. And the most harmful are more likely to survive thanks to a faulty system of human organization. Seeing that flaw in his philosophy was what really made Ultron give Carbonel a chance. But the whole thing was on, hah, thin ice.

Once they were at shouting distance Ultron stopped, and gripped Dunmore’s arm, because he would probably walk into hell if he was promised jello.

“Who are you? What are your intentions?”

The figure kept walking but slowed down.

“What do you think? Survival!”

***

“I’m going to kill that man when he comes back. Now is the worst time for insubordination.”

“He knows, boss, I’m sure he knows, but he had no chores on-board for today.”

“Fri, you are not helping. How is the ice-breaking crew going?”

“There are a few hours of breaking ahead of us, but Veronica is having the time of her life.”

“I’m glad someone is happy in this floating madhouse. I’m going to lose my final loose screw in this trip.”

“You should talk to Bartholomew, boss. He could help.”

“Barf will pick at my brain when he gets back his official title, until then I’ll be the one to pick at his brain. Does he have the ice analysis yet?”

“Nothing strange in the composition itself, but it is as you mentioned, it can’t be natural. The ice is almost clear despite having frozen very rapidly.”

“Carbonel.”

“Yes, Miss Potts? Can I help you?”

“I wanted to go over some inconsistencies in this paperwork with you.”

“But, of course, let us sit. Won’t Mr. Rogers join us?”

“He’s exploring the ship.”

“I’ll be his guide, boss.”

“Good girl.”

“Huh, we are alone, Carbonel, may I be candid?”

“You have been nothing but since this nightmare started, Miss Potts.”

“Your paper trail is very good, but I can see through you.”

“You can, huh?”

“There are illegal activities going on in this ship.”

“How dare you? My crew and I won’t stand for this.”

“Look, you can’t fool others, but not me. This reports and the transport of goods and equipment can’t keep a crew this size going. I have followed the money trail. The ship is from Stark Industries, but the trail of your salaries is basically lost in international legal restrictions.”

“And you are angry because our employer values our privacy?”

“In times of transparency, this is highly suspicious, Mr. Carbonel... You are smuggling Stark weapons, are you not?”

There was a long silence.

“You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried, but good try, indeed.”

“Look, I would be willing to make a deal with you if you gave me something to push him from the board of directors.”

“Wow. What a fantastic plan. Look, why would I agree if I was smuggling as you think? Someone should be paying to keep my pretty lips sealed, right?”

“Because the alternative is me seizing this ship without blinking twice.”

“It is a pity I can’t make a deal because I’m not smuggling.”

“Your crew, then.”

“No. Nobody here is smuggling weapons.”

“What is it if not weapons? Technology? Life-vests?”

“We are not... Oh, __cazzo.__ You are bullheaded indeed, let’s see if there is something else... Captain to the bridge.”

“Karen here. What’s it? Should I engage finally?”

“No, __Cara.__  Not yet. Is Vis over there? Tell him we need him here like yesterday.”

***

“And that’s how I got here.”

Ultron huffed, Dummy earned again his name by eagerly nodding. They were on their way to the ship again. The stranger, who claimed to be named Loki, was a liar. Ultron had never seen someone living in the ice and thrive as he seemed to be thriving. He was well-nourished, his hair was growing long and brilliant, and well-groomed, not like a hermit in the freezing pole. And he seemed to speak English with a British accent.

“What about you?”

“We are not allowed to say,” grunted Ultron before Dunmore could say too much.  

“You are military, then.”

“We are not allowed to say.”

“I... I don’t think I should go with you if that’s the case.”

Loki stopped, Ultron didn’t, but he noticed how Dummy rolled his eyes behind his back and gestured “no” before encouraging the stranger to keep walking.

***

“You can trust me!” Ms. Potts shouted.

“Says the woman who works with a weapons dealer and threatens with taking away our livelihood!” Carbonel shouted back.

Vis just looked at both of them calculating how delicate the situation was and how their lives could depend on these two people reaching an agreeable solution.

“May I suggest a middleman?”

That earned him a pair of angry glares.

“You are not unbiased.”

“I’m not talking about myself, miss. I am aware of the existence of a... mutual friend of yours who could be of some help.”

“I don’t know, Jarv, this is already a mess. Can we trust someone else? Who would play... No. You think?”

Tony knew there was a faint smile under Jarvis’ stoicism. Potts didn’t.

“No. I agree with Carbonel. We won’t agree on a third party. There is no way.”

“No, no, no. Wait, Potts. This is too important to be stubborn about it. Call him through a secure channel and tell us whenever he can join a threesome with us.”

Potts huffed. Tony winked. Jarvis left.

“I just said no. And you have ignored me.”

“If he won’t help there is no need to fight, and if he agrees to mediate we can fight all you want. If you don’t want him as the middle man, it is alright, I still want his advice. I heard you say no, but this stopped being a polite negotiation 20 minutes ago, Potts. This stopped being anything civil when you threatened my crew.”

“You are endangering American lives with your smuggling business. Your crew is collateral damage in comparison.”

“Look, I’m trying not to make an enemy out of you, but you are making it very hard.”

“ _ _I__ am making it very hard? Why? Because I won’t bend to the rules of this little world that you built in the ship for your own ego, to rule over something?”

Carbonel stood and pushed the chair, making it topple and making a racket. A whine from the door made Tony look away from Pots and to the man in the threshold, who had his hands over his ears.

“You,” Carbonel put his hand over his heart. “You are an absolute disaster; I said we wanted privacy”.

The man looked down and nodded, but he didn’t take his hands from his ears. Carbonel took his hand from his chest and the sailor looked up almost instantly.

“It is an emergency, then?”

The man nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this short, Potts.”

She jumped to pull his arm and make him stay.

“If you think you are leaving this room without giving me a name you have ano-”

“Colonel Rhodey Rhodes.” And with that Carbonel rushed out of the door.

“Rhodes? You know Rhodes?”

But the only one who heard her was Rogers, who came through the door a second after.

“Is everything all right?”

“I knew that man was going to be a pain in my neck. Did you find anything?”

“There are hidden weapons on-board.”

“I knew it!”

“I’m not so sure, Potts. The weapons are not carefully stored, only carefully hidden. I only knew where to look for them because I was the original plans of the boat, but these don’t look like SI weapons.”

“I don’t care whose weapons they are moving. I bet they are moving Hammer’s merch as well. No loyalty. They would sell their mothers for a good benefit. It is illegal, and that gives us an edge. We are going to take them down along with Stane.”

***

“What is it?” Tony asked his crew.

“Oil prospecting,” answered Karen swiftly.

“Illegal?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Those are tricky enough when we are on our own. We’ll have to be extra careful this time.”

“We are doing it?” Friday cringed. “With our... current context?”

“Well, you wouldn’t have brought it to my attention if you thought I would say no.”

And nobody could answer to that.

“How far is the ship?” Tony asked when the silence stretched long enough.

“About 15 miles from here,” Jarvis pointed out in a screen.

“What is their status? Have they blown anything yet?”

“No detonations, but they are preparing for the first one in a few hours.”

“Good. Good. Family, what do you think? I could go, put the lead bag around the blasting charge and be back for dinner. I could even pick up Tuna on the way and Butterfingers can do something with it”.

“That’s unsanitary,” Jarvis remarked.  

“That’s all you are going to say?” Karen hissed.

“No, I was also going to suggest him to take Mark with him.”

“I’m faster without him.”

“You will need someone to make holes in the ice if what happened here happens again there. You are not a shark.”

Tony had nothing to do against hard logic.

“Fine, but dinner will be late and you know who to blame.”

***

Ultron got on-board and he felt something was different. He had been told he was too prone to onerous feelings. It was not his fault if the world was an onerous place. But this was different. He was sure something had gone wrong. The whole trip was a disaster waiting to explode under their noses, but Ultron would have liked to be there for it.

“Where is Carbonel?” He asked a passing sailor.

The sailor shrugged and went away.

Ultron turned to tell the stranger to wait on deck while he looked for the captain, but Dummy, (and it was Dummy by now, his patience was gone) had taken Loki by the sleeve and was guiding him away as if he had some Tony-radar. And he was going the wrong way too. Carbonel could only be negotiating with Potts or on the bridge, not that way in any case. He walked briskly to point them in the right direction at the very least.

“One day somebody will listen to me in this sinking-”

“Dumdum!” Tony appeared just before them. “We’ll have more than words about leaving the ship without permission. And what do we have here? Do you speak English? Russky? Something native? I only know a few words of Inupiat. Italiano? I miss talking...”

“There is no need. I understand you.”

“Oh.” Tony blinked because there was a very smooth English and a peculiar smile where he had expected a repeat of the hilarious (only after it was solved) incident with the Russian Mafia. “Oh. Good, okay. Good. Welcome to the Carbonel, I’m Carbonel, but call me Tony.”

Ultron came closer and noticed Tony looking at both of them to check what they thought of the stranger. He made a half-gesture, he had a lot of doubts about this character. And then he felt more than saw Dummy shaking his head no. What had he missed this time?

It didn’t matter, Carbonel’s attention was back on the stranger.

“Then please call me Loki.”

“Loki, and what were you doing in the great white all alone?”

“An overenthusiastic desire for loneliness. I’m not proud of it, but I had read about survival in the ice, and I thought it would be a good place for a spiritual retreat. Until things went wrong”.

“Yeah, well, you are lucky we were passing by, then! Get warm. I have things to deal with, but I’ll make sure to meet with you as soon as I have time. I'm sure it makes for a great story."

Tony sent him on his way to see Barf and discretely made his two crewmen get close to receive orders.

“Ultron, Dumdum, be the huh... __patella?__ Oh _ _,__ the limpetson his hull. I don’t like half-truths and too many things are happening on this trip to my liking, don’t you think?”

Ultron nodded gravely. Finally, someone who got it! This was going to be a disaster. Dummy just bounced after the stranger. Tony went to walk past him, but Ultron gripped his arm in what many would consider a too-tight grip. It was maybe a bit forceful and they attracted some attention.

Dummy was staring hard. Mark was approaching from the other side of the corridor and Loki had stopped and was clearly analyzing their dynamics, and that is the only reason why Ultron controlled carefully his strength and his words.

“What happened?”

“Nothing to merit that sour face.” Carbonel was back to smiling brilliantly. “Seriously, we will update you later, but we are in a hurry.”

Ultron let him go and Mark looked at him blankly before walking away with Tony. That guy had a resting face that could have cowered a small army into submission. Then they were leaving and Mark tripped on air, making a loud metal bang when he caught himself.

Carbonel was laughing loudly and saying something like “Typical 42.”

Why did Ultron even try? He was the only sane one in a ship of dorks.

***

“Colonel Rhodey Rhodes? I’m calling from the Carbonel”

“I know, Jarvis. I recognized your voice. What is it? Does Tony need any more clarifications? because he could wait until morning...”

“Not exactly. We have run into some legal issues and in trying to smooth things over...”

“Oh, shit this is the untraceable one. Wait, wait. Okay. Go on. Is this about the ownership issue?”

“It is. As I was saying, we ran into trouble, and he is trying to negotiate.”

“Good. What’s the problem? He’s good at those.”

“A stalemate, as far as I can see. And the terms delved into less than legal territory.”

“Shit, Tony... I’m not betraying my country for him.” His voice was as firm as an old oak.

“That’s not the request. The other party is also your acquaintance. We would request your mediation.”

“...Stane?”

“Potts.”

“Potts! Less than legal? Are you... Oh, I see, a stalemate. Of course.”

“You seem to be having a conversation I don’t have the privilege of hearing.”

That startled a laugh out of the man at the other side of the phone.

“Oh, Jarvis, don’t change.”

“I’ll make an effort not to.”

“Fine, so will I. God... Potts... Give me some time to see if I have something useful for you.”

“Of course. That’s why the solar flares disrupted the signal, making this call impossible and the reason we won’t be able to contact you until tomorrow morning.”

“Tony is so lucky you stayed by his side. I hope he tells you often and costly.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”


	4. Under the Sea

Tony looked at Mark. His stone-like face was not completely devoid of tells, but he only twitched in situations where the rest of the world would be shouting things like “Oh, fuck” and “doomsday is here”.

“How’s life treating you, Mark?” he asked.

“Let’s see. If the rumors are correct; I’ll be out of a home, a salary and in the Interpol list of most wanted soon.”

“That’s such a thirteen attitude...”

“Which one was thirteen?”

“The negative one.”

They walked in silence for a moment.

“I don’t believe you remember that stupid list. You make it up as you go.”

“Wrong!” Tony cheered up. “Mark one is hopeful. Mark two is a perfectionist. Mark three loves competing with himself.”

“Okay, okay. Stop. If I wanted my mind to be sliced I’d go to Barf. Or Butterfingers, his knifes are probably sharper.”

“Don’t tell him that or we will be eating everything in paper-thin slices for a week.”

“Frozen peas sliced.”

“Lettuce sliced.”

“Mussels sliced?”

Both laughed weakly. At last Tony did, Mark did his thinning-his-lips version of a smile.

“Is it very far?” Mark complained.

“Not for me. I’m going ahead. I’ll find you.”

“What? No. Wait. Jarvis will have my head if I let you go on your own.”

“Then don’t tell him!” Tony laughed, already divesting himself and pulling a seal skin from his rucksack. “I can hold my breath for nearly two hours and you have combat training. Guess who should be over the ice and who below.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Sorry, Mark, see you a mile from the ship. Don’t get... how do you call them? Oh, cold feet.”

Mark huffed at the hole in the ice where Tony had slipped into his skin and down below with the lead bag in his hands.  

“He has no right to be annoyed when it’s him who makes the Little Mermaid jokes.”

The water rippling behind him made him look to check if Tony wanted something else, but he was alone in the vast white. He picked up the clothes Tony left behind and his rucksack,  dragged the drill with him and cursed the two intruders. If Potts and Rogers were off the ship they would have used the snow bikes, but no, they had to be cautious and discreet.

Mark didn’t like discreet. He liked red, chromed and shiny, with a dash of neon blue and roaring like a kitten. He still didn’t know how how had ended up in a ship that looked like it wasn’t moving at all. Loyalty perhaps, such a pesky thing. He wanted to go back to a motorbike, or a truck, or a jet. Oh, what he would give to fly again.

***

Ultron, arms crossed, didn’t take his eyes from the door where the stranger had been sleeping or “recuperating” for the last long while. At the end of the hall he could hear Rogers trying to talk to You. The voices were getting closer and he saw the problem. Rogers was trying to talk to him with a smile, a hand on his nape, and trying to make __small talk,__ and using the name that he had probably learnt in the ship’s files.

As both passed by his side, he stuck his hand out and planted the pads of his five fingers on Roger’s chest, making him stop on his tracks out of politeness. Ultron wouldn’t stand a chance against a super soldier.

“Hey, You.”

You stopped several steps ahead and turned slightly to look in his vague direction, but never at him.

“Is this guy bothering you?” Ultron said with a growl in Roger’s direction.

“Oh, no, no. I wasn’t! I was just asking him bout life on the ship.” Ultron heard that saccharine tone, conciliatory, and got sick of it very quickly.

“Let him be the judge of that. You! I heard you were going dark for a while. Did he chase you away from your spot?”

Ultron waited until he saw You nodding faintly. Ultron put his fist to his chest.

“Then go to decompress and get lost... clown.” Ultron was never any good at soft or friendly insults. He liked a good menacing insult that made one’s mouth feel full. But trying was worth it if You dipped his head hiding one of his shy smiles.

He scurried away and that left Ultron with a big super soldier and no plan.

“Leave him alone,” was the only thing he could think of growling.

“He needs a friend! I thought you were like a family, but you all pick on him all the time! You are all bullies!”

“You know nothing, outsider. You are lucky. If he had had a bad reaction to his name like the last time, you would be forced to swim all the way back to your precious States.”

“A bad reaction?” Some would call his face, full of suspicion, defiance and a dash of confusion, cute. Some were not Ultron.

“Drop his name. It overwhelms him. And he hates the way you were talking to him: loudly and slowly. I could hear you all the way from here. It is patronizing. He understood you and he was leaving you behind. What part of that wasn’t clear?”

“He... Why should I believe you? You are the one who just told him to ‘get lost’!” Rogers puffed up and Ultron was reminded of a growling dog. A pomeranian. A pomeranian that could make you eat your teeth with one punch, but a pomeranian nonetheless.

Ultron was half-tempted to either fight him or let him go on with his idiotic mistake, but he would find You and disturb him again. A growling pomeranian with a bone indeed.

“You are a blind peanut-brain of a flagman and as frustrating as short-cut sheets. You went out of your way to notice how others talk to him but never noticed the fist?” Ultron was incredibly satisfied by a fully-fledged insult. He made the fist sign again for the benefit of the dimwit.

“He slumps every time you do that!”

“He hides a smile, imbecile! The sign is for him to know we are not being serious but affectionate because it comes” he hit his chest again “from the fucking heart. Asperger and autistic guys have a hard time with those differences, so we found a way to make him understand. Now go shove your good intentions up your well-meaning hole. And if I find out the guy has had an episode I will personally make sure the rest of your trip becomes a nightmare.”

“I... I didn’t mean...”

“We all know you didn’t mean. Nobody does. Now leave!”

“I should go to...”

“If you say ‘apologize’ I will hunt you down. He needs to be alone and process. He doesn’t need you to complicate his day even more.”

There was a beat of silence.

“But yes, you should go, before I decide the captain was wrong and I let a bit of misanthropy slip.”

Once the back of Rogers was to him, he heard a soft snickering. Of course, he had forgotten that Dunmore was there to watch over the stranger too. He didn’t say a thing. He just mock-frowned with a big silly pout, crossed his arms and then made the gesture of the fist and the chest before dissolving into quiet giggles, that shouldn’t be coming from a man as old as him.

Ultron narrowed his eyes.

“Shut up”.

***

Tony had broken enough systems like this one to know it from memory. He only had to put a lead bag over the detonation piece to muck all their readings, but if he went to the other half of the equation and broke the seismographs too, the ship was out of commission for longer.

The bag was set, and he was biting the seismograph. It looked crude, but it got the job done far better than opposable thumbs. It would be a mess by the time Mark got to him, and it would save them a lot of time. So he was happily munching the system when he felt the displacement of water.

He turned intending to shoo off whatever sea-life was bothering him, or swimming like hell if a predator... but he didn’t find a predator when he turned, but a blue blur. And when he tried to keep his eyes on the thing it attacked.

Tony swam away without looking back. The thing had hands! It had tried to grab him, and it had felt sharp! He swam as fas as he knew how and in the direction of the closest ship, where the biggest gaps in the ice would help him escape.

But the thing was fast and once again he felt claws on his hind flippers. He shook them off by changing direction and going down. He dared a short look that made him shudder. It wasn’t a diver, as he had faintly hoped. The light from the ice above made a strong backlighting effect, but there was a human torso and a long fin behind, coiling in ways no human leg would coil.

The standby broke and that thing launched itself at Tony.

Tony feinted up and down and back and forth, because if the thing was fast in a straight line, there was a chance it was clumsy with turns. It was his only chance.

He felt the controlled detonation of the ship inside his lead bag, but he didn’t have time to notice or retrieve it. And as he got more and more tired, he got the distinct feeling of being played with. There were claws here and there. Scratching, very few breaking the skin, but making him aware of the persecution.

He reached the holes and went to jump, only to crash against thin but sturdy ice. He didn’t have time for this, he feinted to the next gap, and before he knew it, it was closing. He started to truly panic. He could swim without oxygen for two hours in normal conditions, but being chased was quickly reducing the numbers.

He kept looking for holes through the ice while changing directions, but he swam too close to the surface. He wasn’t aware it was a mistake, but he saw his error soon enough. Several sharp spears grew quickly from the surface ice and trapped him. He was frantic in his attempt to escape, so he trashed and cut himself on the ice. Great, the blood would attract more predators.

The thing was next to him in less than a second, and Tony was very aware of his fat distribution. His middle section was trapped and that creature was going to eat him!

The did the only thing his panic-addled brain could think of. He let go of his coat, transformed back into a human and swam forward, dragging his skin and putting it on on the next second. He had never changed so quickly, but there was no time. That thing wouldn’t stay surprised for long. He swam around the ship, where the blades kept breaking the ice as it grew.

It could have cost him his life; swimming by blades was not exactly safe, but he managed to jump out of the water. It wasn’t enough, of course, it wasn’t enough; he had seen killer whales eating seals whole even two or three meters deep into the dry ice. And this thing had __arms__. The thought was terrifying. He wiggled away as fast as he could, and then he dropped his seal-coat and got on his legs to get further away, running backward, never taking his eyes from the water or the ice below.

He had the vivid image of a hand going through the ice, like a bad B-movie about zombies. And a humanoid thing with long sleek, black hair over his face crawling towards him.

The ice under his feet was white. Nothing to be seen under it. No movie moment, but the was down there, probably.

Tony looked around, seeking Mark. He didn’t know if Mark’s training could help, but the drill he was carrying would help them in a pinch.

Mark was a black point in the distance. A mile away as they had decided. Tony cursed the distance and ran, because he would be damned if he was also caught by the people in the ship after such a nightmare.

Mark felt the situation perfectly. He was tense and ready to fight the moment a naked and bloody Tony reached him.

“What happened? Do they have harpoons?”

“There is something down there,” Tony said while he recuperated.

“Something?” Mark asked cautiously.

“ _ _Something__! With claws!” Tony showed him his pelt and put a finger through one of the holes.

Mark slapped his hand. “You’ll make it bigger.” And he took the pelt carefully before handing him clothes. “I’m more worried about those.”

Tony noticed the cuts on his hips. He mentally thanked his fatty seal hips, because the cuts were not as deep as they should have been.

“Let me put...”

Mark took masking tape out of his rucksack and tapped the wound. Barf would decide if he needed suture or not, but experience had taught the ship of the Carbonel that a tape on time would save nine stitches. Not to mention the benefit of not leaving a blood trail.

“You are a mother-hen, it is barely a scrap.” Tony was getting his breath under control finally, but they couldn’t stop.

They trotted away for a few yards before Mark deigned to comment.

“It was more than a scrap. I see under that armor of yours, I know.”

“Why would you say that?”

They ran further away. Tony waited. Conversations with Mark always had long silences in them, but Tony had learned that filling the silences instead of reading into them only made Mark shut up even more.

“Because you left the lead bag behind. You never do that.”

Tony looked behind. That bag had taken him a lot of time and patience, and his resources were limited. Mark was right, he wouldn’t have left it behind, but just the thought of diving down to retrieve it made him shudder.

Which is why when they returned to their own ship, Tony nearly shouted and stony-faced Mark even gasped. There, in a bundle, by the bottom of the scale to climb to the ship and barely a few inches from the water, they found the lead bag.

***

“I saw a mermaid,” Tony had wanted to keep quiet his doubts, but this was Important. He had gathered his most trusted people and blurted it without any ceremony.

“What?” Barf asked.

“A mermaid. You know how McCarron used to say fairies are fucked up creatures and modern tales just made them pretty? Well, the same thing happened to mermaids, apparently. Mermaids are blue and try to kill seals if they can. I’m calling them nightmer now.”

“A Mermaid? Seriously? Are you sure? We have not seen a single Selkie since you and they have more reason to appear... I thought...” Karen got an elbow to her ribs for her troubles.

“So there are more things out there. That’s good, isn’t it?” Veronica commented far more tactfully.

“I don’t know. That thing tried to kill me!”

“So does Butterfingers with every meal and we don’t love him any less for it.” Karen got a glare from the cook at her quip.

“I don’t know. That creature wasn’t hunting me, you see? Whatever it was, it was faster than me and stronger, and could have killed me, but it was playing with its food. And there is the bag... And it... it froze the water.”

Tony waited to see the collective chill of what that implied.

“So whatever it is, it also froze us here?” Jarvis made sure to leave nothing to the imagination.

“Maybe it is not just one, but a group and they want to sink us?”

“Sure, bring in the cheer, why don’t you, Ultron?” Friday threw her hands in the air.

“If that’s the case, I think we should leave this place, like, yesterday,” Karen chimed.

“What if they follow?” Mark wondered in a monotone that still managed to convey some nervousness.

“I... magic creatures are usually content with offerings.”

“This is not a myth, Veronica,” Barf scolded.

“Maybe, but if we leave behind something they can eat, maybe it will give us time to run away.”

“Our provisions?” Barf said, side-eying a Butterfingers who shook his head vigorously.

“We are not far from the closest dock. We won’t starve.” Veronica tried to explain to the cook.

“You won’t go back to the ice until we know it is safe.” Mark crossed his arms and a silence grew in the crew.

Everyone looked at Tony. Tony’s silence was more revealing than any answer.

“Tony!” Friday shouted with indignation.

“I know! But what if we can communicate with those things?”

“You said it tried to kill you.” Friday slammed a hand on the table.

“I also said it was playing with me.”

“With your life.” Friday made sure to emphasize ‘life’.

“Potahto poteito. It still means some measure of intelligence.” The reluctance was clear in their faces. “Look, guys, we have enough things to worry about, this impromptu reunion was just to let you know and make sure that nobody gets snatched because you walked too close to the edge of the ice. I will inform Dummy and You too and tomorrow we will decide what to do. Now, Jarvis, about that call to my lovely fellow nerd from the MIT?”

“He’d probably prefer ‘fellow nerd from the Air Force’, and he agreed to a call in a few hours.”

“Good, good. Let’s hope this solves one of our problems. Dismissed everyone, except you, the rest walk the plank or whatever.”

“The guy? Loki?”

“Yes, tell me, he is a bit too healthy for someone lost in the ice, right?”

“He is in peak health condition as far as I can tell. He didn’t tell me anything of use despite the medical secrecy.”

“My dear Barf... Barfolomew,” Tony half-corrected at Barf’s glare. “Are you not violating that secrecy by telling me he is in peak condition?”

“What is the medical school going to take away from me if they find out, my title? Oh, wait...”

Barf retaliated by pulling Tony’s tape away and making the process of curing it especially stinging.

“Aw, if I didn’t know better I’d say they sacked you from doctor’s club for your bedside manners.”

"You'll have to bring your pelt. A couple of stitches should help along the healing process."

Tony didn't open his mouth. He was afraid of what would come out. Things like how he didn't want it to heal because that gave him an excuse to stay away from the water. Things like how eager he was to deal with Rogers and Potts to keep his mind from the monster below. Things like the disappointment of finally finding another sentient being under the sea only to become prey to it. 

Barf respected his silence, but that didn't mean he was completely oblivious to Tony's mental state.


End file.
